August 14, 2016

South Africa-based Sea Harvest has gained control of ASX-listed, vertically integrated agribusiness, Mareterram.

Sea Harvest announced its intention to gain control of the company in April of this year. At the time, Sea Harvest held a 19.9% stake in Mareterram, but was lobbying shareholders to sell half of their holdings for 35 cents per share with participating shareholders retaining half their holdings. The offer, which valued Mareterram at $47.2 million was conditional upon Sea Harvest gaining a minimum 50.1% of the company.

This week it was announced that Sea Harvest had successfully gained a 56% of Mareterram for an accepted bid totaling R200 million, (US$15.05 million).

Mareterram is rather new to Australia’s agribusiness sector, only venturing into agribusiness in June 2015 when it acquired Nor-West Seafoods for $20 million, followed by the acquisition of the food services division of Craig Mostyn Group in August for an additional $3 million before listing on the ASX in December of last year. Through these acquisitions it has become the largest license holder in the Shark Bay Prawn Fishery in Western Australia, catching king, tiger, and endeavor prawns, as well as scallops.

Sea Harvest, which came out of the Mareterram listing as a key stakeholder, was established in 1964 on the west coast of South Africa. The company employs more than 2,000 people, owns 12 deep-sea trawlers, and has the capacity to catch and process over 40,000 tons of Cape Capensis (Cape Hake) per year according to its website.

Felix Ratheb, CEO, Sea Harvest, told BD Live that the Mareterram acquisition is highly complementary as the strategy to become a vertically integrated agribusiness on a global scale was common to both companies.

Sea Harvest’s move on Mareterram follows closely after Brimstone Investment Corp. increased its stake in Sea Harvest to 85% from 58.44% in April of this year, and some in the industry are projecting that it represents plans on the part of Brimstone to build a significant food protein platform reports BD Live. 

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Lynda Kiernan